EDUCATION, TREATMENT KEY IN FIGHTING DRUGS

The U.S. House has voted $1.62 billion in aid to Colombia, the South
American nation that has more than its share of problems even without the
drug cartel that is the cause of this U.S. aid. The White House requested
$1.57 billion in aid, and Congress is likely to provide at least that
amount.

To give you some feel for what these dollars mean, that is slightly more
than double all of the aid we provide for sub-Saharan Africa, the world's
poorest continent.

The case for aiding Colombia has merit. Colombia has a struggling--and not
real stable--democracy. They need encouragement. Our intelligence people say
that last year, Colombia's drug-destined crops increased 23 percent, and
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who heads our anti-drug program, estimates that 80
percent of the cocaine and heroin entering the United States "comes from or
through Colombia, causing 52,000 deaths here each year," according to an
item in Newsweek.

The difficulty with this approach as a "silver bullet" answer is that unless
we do something about demand in the United States, even if we stop the flow
of drugs completely from Colombia, the financial incentives are so great
that other nations will eagerly fill the gap.

I favor assisting Colombia, but if we believe that we can stop drugs coming
into the United States by working with other nations, coupled with
imprisoning U.S. citizens who play the dangerous game of supplying drugs, we
are wrong--dead wrong. By working with Colombia, we can slow the traffic in
drugs. I am for that. But it is an incomplete answer and self-deluding if we
think this money means we have really done something significant about
drugs.

On the home front, I favor prosecuting and imprisoning drug kingpins. But so
long as the demand is high, and the risky profits huge, every time we
imprison one drug leader, there are 10 others eager to take his place.

I have a fair amount of experience talking to relatives of those addicted
and to those who are "hooked" by either hard drugs or alcohol. But years
ago, wanting a little more hands-on experience, I arranged with then-Chicago
Police Supt. LeRoy Martin to spend a little time with officers working on
the drug challenge.

Afterward, I visited with Martin and the U.S. Attorney for the Chicago area,
Anton Valukas. Martin said the problem cannot be solved by the police alone,
that education holds the real key, by reducing demand. Valukas told me he
had an inadequate number of personnel to handle the demands of his office,
but because of the importance of drug education, he had one lawyer assigned
to simply go around to the schools, telling students the grim truth.

Education alone will not do it. Nothing by itself will.

But much greater stress on education early on, and then treatment for those
who want help, have to be two important pieces of the mosaic. Too many who
need treatment today have to wait, sometimes as long as six months, and that
waiting period is dynamite for the addicted and for our society. The person
hooked often resorts to illegal means--including violence--to maintain his
or her habit.

Six years ago, I visited Cook County Jail to determine how that
institution's needs might fit into a national health care plan. While there,
I toured some of the facilities.

In one large room housing about 45 less-violent prisoners, resembling my old
Army basic training "residence," I asked one of the men what we could do to
help him go straight after he left.

"I want to get into drug treatment," he told me. I turned to the officer
giving me the tour and asked, "Why can't he get into drug treatment?"

The response: "We have 9,000 prisoners and room for only 120 in drug
treatment." I turned to the others in the room and asked how many of them
wanted to get into drug treatment, and two-thirds of them raised their
hands.

As of last Friday, Cook County Jail had 9,956 inmates, and drug treatment
facilities for 120 women and 120 men. One person who knows that scene well
says that having drug treatment facilities for 3,000 there would reduce
crime among those subsequently released, and because of the smaller numbers
eventually returning to prison, would save money in the long run. And save
lives.

A high percentage of those in any local or state or federal prison are there
directly or indirectly because of drugs.

Should we help Colombia stop the drug traffic? You bet. Should we be tough
on those selling drugs? You bet. But should we be smarter and devote more of
our resources to drug education and treatment? You bet.